OUT OF OFFICE January 25, 2010 CHRIS OFILI OPENS AT TATE BRITAIN Famous for his works decorated with elephant dung, Turner Prize winning Chris Ofili shows here that he’s an artist of great sophistication for his relatively few years. This retrospective spans 20 years of his work, from his time in Zimbabwe (the dung) to pieces inspired by living in Trinidad. [...]
The raw and the cooked rock at Roka January 25, 2010 Roka 1st Floor, 4 Park Pavilion, 40 Canada Square, E14 5FW FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £55 HAVE you ever been to Roka before?” asked our waiter, poised to take us through the Roka concept, as though this was the posh, pan-Asian equivalent of a Harvester. I regretted to [...]
THREE OTHER SLEEK CANARY WHARF RESTAURANTS January 25, 2010 PARLOUR Canada Square’s Park Pavillion is a new building that’s transforming Canary Wharf’s culinary scene by hosting four new restaurants. Parlour is one of them, a design-heavy cocktail bar and restaurant, with long party tables, separate booths, private mezzanine and al fresco terrace. www.theparlourbar.co.uk WAHACA Branch number three for London’s most fashionable Mexican restaurant, whose [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 25, 2010 MASTER OF MACAROONS COMES TO LONDON Parisian pâtissière to the stars Pierre Hermé is to come to London. Naturally he’ll have a Knightsbridge boutique – but that’s scheduled for summer. In the meantime, his gilded macaroons and bonbons will be on sale at Selfridges, from 5 February. Hermé is credited with creating the modern macaroon, [...]
From Russia with love – and money January 24, 2010 THE OLIGARCH’S WIFE By ANNA BLUNDY Preface, £12.99 Anna Blundy, an impossibly glamorous-looking journalist and daughter of the late foreign correspondent Peter Blundy, knows her subject well. A graduate of a Russian at Oxford, she lived in Russia first as a translator, then a blues singer and then as foreign correspondent for a national newspaper. [...]
OUT OF OFFICE January 24, 2010 Van gogh comes to the r.a. Incredibly, this is the first major Van Gogh exhibition in London for over 40 years, and it will shed extra light on the impulses and inspirations of the troubled Dutch painter with the inclusion of 35 of his letters, as well as 65 paintings and 30 drawings. Whether your [...]
A hotel that’s fit for a king January 24, 2010 ON walking into the lobby of Paris’ George V you can tell it’s a grande dame, but it has a twist which makes it immediately memorable. There’s the immaculately designed wrought-iron door frame, 17th century tapestries adorning the walls and acres of marble lining the floors, but it is far from stuffy. Smartly-suited staff smile [...]
We’ll always have Paris January 24, 2010 NOBODY does romance better than the French. Paris might no longer be the centre of world when it comes to business or culture, but in terms of places to spend Valentine’s Day nothing comes close. The French capital has a huge spectrum of hotels for every budget and taste, but the knowledgeable people at the [...]
TRAVEL NOTES FOR VALENTINE’S DAY January 24, 2010 Fall in love in New York You and your partner can enjoy some top quality pampering and fabulous food, along with the best of the Big Apple, at New York’s famous slice of Upper East Side luxury, The Carlyle. In the swankiest city on Earth, it doesn’t get swankier than this Art Deco landmark on [...]
Clive Owen proves that he’s the daddy January 21, 2010 Film THE BOYS ARE BACK Cert: 12A NOTHING to do with Thin Lizzy (sadly), this adaptation of Simon Carr’s memoir stars Clive Owen as Joe, a macho Brit sports journalist living in happy isolation on the Australian coast with his wife and young son, whose cosy idyll is swept away by her sudden death from [...]